OK, what do you think the best turntable out there is in the 400$ range these days? Project / Rega / Marantz??? I'm open for suggestions!

I am thinking of getting the project debut carbon $400

Haven't seen the Marantz, but I installed a Project for a client and I like it. Manual- no auto/semi-auto functions, but a good tonearm, cosmetics and operation are excellent. The Rega may be a good turntable, but I wasn't impressed by some of the cosmetic details. I know that's not the most important, but it's not that hard to make an MDF base look better than they did.

All of the above, the Marantz has a pre-amp in it but I do not like the Tone-arm.

I have the Rega P1 and like it a lot for what it is, I also have the Rega Phono-Mini its is cool in that it also has a USB out so you can digitize an album if you want too.

The Pro-Ject, Rega and Music Hall are all very similar in performance and great starter tables. Cant really go wrong with them, they are mostly set up out of the box.

And they come in cool colors if that's your gig.

Thanks yall. Turntable sales are on a CRAZY increase. All the youngsters are fasinated by them, plus us Baby Boomers are getting back into vinyl! WOOOHOOO

I'm still wondering why Denon who makes some great cartridges, doesn't include a phono preamp in their receivers and on the higher end models, why they don't have a MC section. Am I just being selfish?

The only reason I reduced my vinyl playing is the fact that I don't have a microscope to check the stylus on my DL-103d and because it's old enough that I suspect that the stylus' suspension might fail while it's being used.

Replace it with this, it works very well. Its what I put on my Rega.
The 103 is mentioned in the first review.

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That's what I bought, but I'd really prefer the 103d. They used to replace the stylus for any current model, but they're up to the 103r, so it's not 'current', technically. I might buy a Parasound Z-phono preamp.

I just bought my son a Denon TT that has it's own built-in phono preamp. DP300

I have a turntable that I like, but before I started using AVRs, I used (still have it, actually) a Sony ES integrated amp. I could always use that as an Aux source, but if I sell off my old equipment, which I plan to do, I'd be back where I am now.